Based upon the novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka
Screenplay Written by Christopher McQuarrie and Jez Butterworth & John-Henry Butterworth
Directed by Doug Liman
***1/2 (three and a half stars)
And the winning streak continues!!
Lately, I have been bemoaning the overwhelming presence of the mega budgeted, CGI special effects driven movies that populate our cinemas, certainly during the summer months and the winter holiday seasons, but over the years their presence has only been increased to a distressing degree.
Despite my feelings, please allow me to re-emphasize that I have nothing inherently against those types of movies, especially as so many of those types of movies happen to be some of my most favorite movies. But when those types of movies arrive and are being made at a rate that functions at the expense of seemingly any other types of movies being made, that's when I have a problem. As for the mega budgeted, CGI special effects driven films themselves, well...I do think that the spectacle of those movies have long overshadowed the actual quality of what is being released. In too many cases these days, it feels as if those movies are being made just to have a collection of "WOW!" moments to run in the trailers and to test the limits of the movie theater's sound systems. After seeing these types of movies for so much of my life, the prospect of seeing even one more explosion does fill me with an internal fatigue. I mean--if you're going to have explosions, fine but please give those explosions a story and characters I give a whit about.
Director Doug Liman's "Edge Of Tomorrow" could not have arrived at a better time as I could have easily used a cinematic escape but was not willing to pay those theater prices for more superheroes and city destroying monsters as I have just seen it all before. And yet, with "Edge Of Tomorrow," there is an enormous amount of familiarity contained within this latest Tom Cruise starring science-fiction thriller but that very familiarity worked splendidly to its advantage. Miraculously, Liman has helmed an experience that is not only breathless, imaginative, dizzying, propulsive as well as one to shake the theater walls and more than satisfy those of you looking for those CGI driven special effects to blow you away, but he has also delivered something that almost might make us feel as if we have not quite seen anything like it before.
Set in an undetermined future, Earth has spent five full years engaged in war with an alien species known as Mimics, ferocious creatures of blinding velocity that appear to become sort of hybrid between a spider, an octopus, any manner of hungry four legged predator and something metallic. Over the course of the war, NATO has established the United Defense Forces (UDF), and despite the creation of fully armed and mechanized exoskeletons for soldiers to operate in battle as well as one clear victory against the Mimics in Verdun, both Germany and France have been eviscerated leaving London as the next potential target.
Tom Cruise stars as Major William Cage, a UDF spokesman and member of the Army Reserves who is ordered by General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) to accompany the troops straight to the front lines the next day as part of Operation Downfall, an order to which Cage declines as he protests that he is not a soldier. Regardless, and after attempting to blackmail the General, Cage is arrested, stripped of his rank and reluctantly ends up under the command of Master Sergeant Farrell (Bill Paxton) at Heathrow Airport.
Cage, with no combat training, no knowledge of how his weaponry operates and no way out, ends up on the battleground only to find himself killed within minutes.
And then he awakens back at Heathrow Airport as if everything was a nightmare, only to discover that he is indeed trapped within a time loop, repeatedly forced to enter battle against the Mimics and die only to re-awaken and die all over again. That is, unless he is able to figure out a way to defeat the Mimics, utilizing the skills and invaluable teamwork of super soldier Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) in the process.
Doug Liman's "Edge Of Tomorrow" (a lousy title that sounds like the name of a long cancelled television soap opera), itself an adaptation of Hiroshi Sarkurazaka's novel All You Need Is Kill (much better title), is precisely the very type of big budget, special effects driven summer movie that I would easily line up outside of the movie theater to see on its opening day. It is indeed a spectacle, containing an astounding visual sheen that completely enveloped me as I watched, especially during the opening sequences created a feverish tension and terror as Cage is unwillingly placed on the front lines in a battle sequence that could stand in the same war torn vicinity of sequences from Oliver Stone's "Platoon" (1986) and Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" (1998), although with considerably less graphic violence.
And I think that very sense of terror is hat makes "Edge Of Tomorrow" stand out among all of the other CGI wastelands that populate our theater screens, as Liman focuses much attention upon the human cost and even the futility of combat. While not exactly standing as some sort of an anti-war film, Liman very slyly makes a pointed statement against those with the power to send the young to fight and die when they would otherwise not go into battle themselves. As William Cage, Tom Cruise gives face to the plastic armchair warriors who will go on television to speak about battle in PR terms without having any knowledge whatsoever about the brutality of the battlefield. Yet, once he is strapped into his exoskeleton suit, fearing for his life, Liman's sharp satire comes into focus and what teeth it has!
But aside from the satire, I must take time to return to that sense of familiarity I had while watching "Edge Of Tomorrow." Yes, from the plot description, you could gather that this film is sort of like a cross between Harold Ramis' existential comedy "Groundhog Day" (1993) and Duncan Jones' science-fiction thriller "Source Code" (2011), and you would be very correct in that assumption as through the act of dying over and over again, Cage is able to actually become a better soldier, transforming himself from coward to hero.
Additionally, you are also bound to see elements of Paul Verhoven's "Robocop" (1987), "Total Recall" (1990) and "Starship Troopers" (1997) as well as other time travel themed science fiction films like Terry Gilliam's "Twelve Monkeys" (1995), or even the existential chase movie, Tom Tykwer's "Run Lola Run" (1998), for instance. But unlike last year's "Oblivion" (also starring Tom Cruise), which I rated as being one of the worst films of 2013 due to its level of cinematic plagiarism, what Liman and his screenwriters have achieved is something truly clever as they fully utilize our knowledge of those movies, plus our knowledge of summer action films as a genre, to fuel the plot and play with the conventions of the genre as a whole, thus making for an film that is constantly surprising even when we should always know what is coming next.
Just think about every action film you have ever seen where the hero miraculously and impossibly survives all manner of insurmountable dangers, only to save the day and return in a series of sequels where they are bound to perform the same miraculous and impossible feats again. With "Edge Of Tomorrow," that entire convention is nearly tossed out of the window as Liman utilizes essentially a video game aesthetic to depict how William Cage dies more times than I was able to keep up with, and sometimes in surprisingly hilarious fashions, giving the film an unexpected sharp dose of comedy.
Even moreso, Tom Cruise, giving a typically committed performance, plays along beautifully as he completely mines his own filmography and our knowledge of his roles to inform what we see in "Edge Of Tomorrow." From his roles in films like Tony Scott's "Top Gun" (1986), Rob Reiner's "A Few Good Men" (1992), his "Mission: Impossible" series to Christopher McQuarrie's "Jack Reacher" (2012), we have seen Cruise's unstoppable can-do attitude over and again. And while he has elicited darker shades and has played around with his film persona at times (and magnificently) in films like Oliver Stone's "Born On The Fourth Of July" (1989) and even Cameron Crowe's "Jerry Maguire" (1996), "Edge Of Tomorrow" gives him an opportunity to play a full on coward and he is clearly having a great time sending up himself. Liman also employs a most clever bit of casting in Noah Taylor as this actor essentially serves the exact same function as he performed as the sinister yet expository Tech Support to Cruise's existentially trapped character in Cameron Crowe's "Vanilla Sky" (2001), an element that made me smile broadly even as I was completely involved in the actual story line, the characters and their collective fates.
Now before I left my home for the theater this afternoon, I read a story posted on Variety that showed how "Edge Of Tomorrow" actually opened this weekend to relatively poor box office numbers when compared to "The Fault In Our Stars" (which I hope to see next weekend) and other recent releases. The article went on to proclaim that the movie business has quite possibly reached a point when even really strong films like "Edge Of Tomorrow" have slight chances for striking box office gold when we live during a period when movies based on toys, comic books or otherwise something that already possesses a built in audience have taken the entire playing field.
Such a shame as there is truly no conceivable reason for "Edge Of Tomorrow" to not be a smash hit at the box office as it truly is a high quality summer escapist movie to see. You will definitely get much bang for your hard earned buck plus a sumptuous visual sheen, clever writing, strong performances from the entire cast, thrills, spills, chills as well as a healthy dose of heart, soul and brains. All you will not receive is the ready made appeal of characters that you already know and love and why should that deter you at all? Trust me, dear readers, it shouldn't!
Doug Liman's "Edge Of Tomorrow" is terrific entertainment and yet another strong release in a very surprising cinematic year of 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment